


Not what he seemed

by armethaumaturgy



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Implied/Referenced Abuse, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-23
Updated: 2015-07-23
Packaged: 2018-04-10 20:40:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4406786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/armethaumaturgy/pseuds/armethaumaturgy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Geoff would like to say he knows his crew members through and through, but the more he spends time with Ray, the more it becomes obvious that he doesn’t. In his mind, Ray is —was— the gamer kid that got swept into all this mess because he liked weed and wasn’t very rich.<br/>But now, Geoff notices Ray isn’t like he thought at all.<br/>Geoff wants to hit himself when the pieces finally click together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not what he seemed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [butterflyknifle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/butterflyknifle/gifts).



Geoff would like to say he knows his crew members through and through, but the more he spends time with Ray, the more it becomes obvious that he doesn’t. In his mind, Ray is —was— the gamer kid that got swept into all this mess because he liked weed and wasn’t very rich. Geoff thinks this for months, until the point where Michael finally persuades him to move in with the rest of the crew - “But it’s safer for you with us!” Michael told him. “Plus, we get to be together twenty-four seven.”

Back then, Ray was still very new to their… relationship. Six men might’ve been weird, but Geoff had seen weirder in his days. Ray tended to keep to himself most of the time; he played his games, sometimes with others, sometimes by himself. Geoff was the first —save for Michael— to notice just how good he was at them. It was almost as though he did nothing else than play. But that wasn’t the truth, Geoff knew first-handedly. Ray was a dead eye with any gun you shoved into his hands, but hewas the best with a sniper rifle. The way he could keep himself absolutely still while shooting was uncanny. Geoff had only even seen him miss the target once, when Michael dared him to shoot their target’s glasses off.

“Oops,” Ray had chuckled when the man moved a bit and the bullet missed the glasses, instead burrowing in his temple. He owed Michael five bucks.

But now, Geoff notices Ray isn’t like he thought at all. The boy is so jumpy Geoff thought he was abstaining from weed at first. When he found him hitting the bong two hours later, he perished the thought.

Ray jumps when someone calls him, he flinches and almost cowers when an argument breaks out —and those are quite frequent, with Michael and Gavin in the same space. He even flinches when someone moves too quickly. The suspicious glint Ray’s eyes take on during those instances are more than enough to put Geoff on edge.

Geoff wants to hit himself when the pieces finally click together. _Why did it take me so long to see?_

Ray can’t keep himself still at all. He’s constantly clutching his controller, tapping a finger against one of the bumpers without actually pressing it, tapping his foot when he isn’t playing anything. His hands shake whenever Geoff pays attention to them.

Geoff can’t remember the last time Ray participated in a crew meeting. He means the larger one, where Lindsay always chews him out for wasting money and Kerry has to calm her down. Ray is fine with heist meetings, where it’s just the six of them, albeit it is sometimes more clustered than the bigger ones.

Ryan comes home —hah, home, what a funny name for their safehouse— and makes straight for the living room. He’s covered in blood, his hair is disheveled, face paint smudged from sweat, but he’s smiling as he comes to the couch. He envelopes them both in a hug, intentionally smearing the blood on their clothes to piss them off. The clothes are the last thing on Geoff’s mind when he notices how stiff Ray had gone, shaking hands holding the Xbox controller to tightly Ray’s skin goes white. His character dies on the TV screen and Ray doesn’t yell at Ryan about it, doesn’t even comment about it. He slowly turns his head and only when he sees the smeared black around Ryan’s eyes does he relax.

He relaxes into the embrace, leaning back against Ryan’s arm and trapping it between his neck and the couch. It’s a payback, Geoff realises as he twists to kiss the vagabond. Now Ray won’t let Ryan go until his arm cramps.

He smiles ruefully.

Michael races down the corridor, clumsily pulling on his jacket. “Ray!” he calls out. Ray’s wrapped up in Geoff’s arms, the older man almost dozing off, but the shout jerks them both. Geoff tightens his arms around Ray, running his fingers down Ray’s arm in what he hopes is a soothing gesture.

Ray pauses the game.

“Yeah?” he calls out, his heart hammering so loudly Geoff can hear it. His voice doesn’t tremble, though.

“Did you see my bag of explosives? I think Gav hid it again, the fucker.”

Ray points at the cabinet underneath the TV and Michael thanks him with a kiss after he grabs the bag and then disappeares from the house. Ray settles against Geoff again, burrowing his head in the crook of his neck and unpauses his game.

Geoff sighs.

He leans down and starts placing kisses onto Ray’s head.

At first Ray giggles, and Geoff has to remind himself that this boy killed more people than he could count on the fly, and then he asks, “What’s gotten into you?”

Geoff smiles down at him and turns him over so Ray doesn’t have to crane his neck to look at him. “It’s okay, Ray,” he says quietly. He’d been rehearsing what to say; he needed Ray to listen, at least this once, and not deflect his words with a joke. “Whatever happened, we’ll make sure it won’t happen again. You’re safe with us.”

Ray’s lips stretch into a smile and his eyes glimmer with something Geoff can’t place, not as sober as he is. “I know,” Ray whispers back. “It’s just a habit now. I’m working on it.”

Geoff is starting to think he’s a bit too sober for this, but he’s doing surprisingly well so far. He mentally pats himself on the back. “You’re doing great, but I want you to know you don’t have to do that. Your comfort comes first before any surprise hugs.”

“Okay,” is all Ray says. Then, after a few minutes in a pleasant silence, he rests his head against Geoff’s chest and places his controller onto the table. He hands the TV remote to the older man. “Just make sure no one wakes me up, for starters.”

Geoff takes it and turns on some action film that’s been left if the DVD player. He’d make sure Ray didn’t have to flinch when someone called him anymore, even if it was the last thing. And hey, if that meant he’d start by watching over the sleeping boy, he had exactly zero complaints.

**Author's Note:**

> (((this is just a one-shot for now, but if anyone wants me to continue this, maybe make this into a real, chaptered story, just let me know!)))  
> I've started on the chaptered story! [Check it out!](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4419344)


End file.
